Hi, this is Sharda Agra. Hello, this is Mohammad Assam.
Hi, this is Pradeep Magazine. This is Bharam Kazi.
Welcome to the PCCI podcast. RCB breezes through the WPL to
win it like a boss. Take a bow.
Smriti Mandhana, Grace Harris, Lauren Bell, Nadine Leclerc,
Shyanka Patil and Richard Ghosh. Oh wait, almost forgot Vol.
Kind of like they did. Are they through the tournament?
This is the first time I've seen a team just effortlessly run
through the group stage without playing their best to talk about
this and all the other teams. But let's, let's face it, mostly
about RCB. I have a great panel of writers,
qualcasters and journalists with me.
Let's start with introductions. So tell us about yourself and
your favorite sports team. And it doesn't have to be from
the WPL. So I'm going to start with
Youtha Rutra and then we'll go. We'll go in around drop in.
Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me, Richard.
My favorite sports team. I think it has to be RCB, right?
I think India has become too big.
It's hard to support the overdog after years of watching Sachin
struggle. And that's what I grew up with,
Sachin struggling and us having this great batting order and
going to Australia and still getting thrashed every possible
opportunity. And so it's just hard to support
a team that rashes everyone else.
So they're going to be happy when they win in about a month's
time. But I think RCB has to be the
team for me in cricket right now, though somehow they seem to
also be becoming an overdog. 3 titles in three years.
I'm not sure what to do with that.
But for now I'm going to keep telling everyone RCB had no
chance of winning this year, even if they did actually win.
And I'm going to live in this underdog.
Underdog do. How about, how about you, Neha?
Do you want to come in next? Yeah, I mean, First things
first, really been a fan of your podcast, Andrew.
Feels like a life coming to a full circle moment that I can,
you know, actually come over here and talk all things cricket
itself, right? I think to talk about the team
that I've absolutely loved has to be again, our city.
No surprises there. Lived all my life in Bengaluru
here. So, you know, grew up just like
really looking up to the men's team.
And in 2023, I think my life really took like a 360, right?
The women's team came into the comp and we had WPL start of
itself, right? So ever since then, you know, I
just haven't been able to look at any other team and RCB has to
be that one. Just the fact that they were
able to assemble such a great team in 2023, eventually the
result didn't come their way, but the way they still, you
know, came back in 2024, won the title and now being able to do
in 2026, yeah, literally just got goosebumps telling that like
two time champions. This is not something, you know,
as RCV fans, we are that used to, but the women's team is just
making a habit out of it. So we are just excited to look
forward, just excited to discuss like RC VS Win itself and just
like actually review this WPL. All right.
Next up is Pratib. Pratib, why don't you introduce
yourself and tell us that your favorite team is RCV?
So I'm not all I've saved all my life in Bangalore.
RCB is not the team I support. And this is where I think I can
see Tarutra and they have already hating on me.
But I've been a Rajasthan Royal supporter for the longest time.
So I'm also from Rajasthan, which is why I support the
franchise. And it also helped that they won
the IPL in 2008. So yeah, I think mostly that's
the reason. And growing up, they've also
sort of got the right kind of players like Rahul Dravid or the
likes of Shane Warne. So really I that I kind of
watched right from young age. So yeah, that's the reason I
support the Rajasthan Royals, although they've only won the
one IPL title. Wow.
Did I hear I Rajasthan Royals? That's awesome.
All right, so coming back to you, Shan.
Yeah, I think first of all, thank you so much for having me
on this podcast. It's a pleasure that I'm able to
interact with so many of you guys who are all interested in
women's cricket in particular, but are also like proper sports
fans, cricket fans and all that. So I think for me, it's
interesting. I mean, I grew up loving Delhi
Capitals. Del Vinit was the Delhi
Daredevils, and that was mainly when I was talking about this in
the group, right? I grew up a Sehwag fan and I was
really in love with the Indian men's team as well at that
point. So I would say in the Indian
men's team obviously has been one of the teams that I've
supported almost all my life. Even now, I mean, I still have
like they're still my favorite team, I think.
But you know, now that with all all the players of my favorite
generation of my generation, you know, the likes of Kohli and
Rohit and all slowly retiring and going into the sunset
Ashwin. So I don't feel like I have the
same level of attachment any more than you A lot.
Not to say that I don't like watching them play.
I mean, the T20 team is a juggernaut, right?
But yeah, if but even within the Indian men's team, I would say I
love the Indian men's Test team in particular because the way
the brand of cricket that they played, I think that really
caught my eye. And so they are definitely up
there. But RCB, of course, I mean, I
fell in love with them. I went from Delhi to RCB around
2013, 2014 ish. And since then, it's been like a
proper roller coaster ride. No, I don't know.
I mean, we were just part of all jokes for the longest time.
Everybody used to make fun of us that we are a bad team and we
can't win anything and all of that.
But now, 33 trophies in three years, it's unbelievable stuff
honestly. I think until the last few years
my only question to RCB fans was where are the bowlers?
Where? Where are they exactly like?
OK, so we'll we go back to the RCB fan again.
So I'm going to ask you, what was the biggest surprise about
RCB for you in this season? This season, everything.
So I actually put out a piece today morning in my newsletter
just going on about this RCB team makes no sense.
They have one batter that constantly plays like they have
one batter in the top 1012 round like for the entire season.
It's just Andre at the top and no RCB players.
They have one bowler who can bowl well.
She bowls extremely well. But there's just the one who can
do 4 overs. They don't have a middle order.
They had four recognized like specialist batters in the final.
Two of them got out for 15 runs. They their captain is good at
man management. Not the best on field tactician.
I've no idea how they won like we all predicted them to lose
then be bottom of the table at the start of the season.
I'm still not entirely sure we were on.
I have no idea how we want. I have no idea how they made 203
runs look like a stroll in the park.
They I think the one thing none of us really thought about was
how much the the one thing Manana brings.
She's so cool under any kind of pressure, which I think seems to
be but I don't know how they want.
This doesn't make any sense to me.
I don't actually have a proper answer for you because you look
at the teams. MI should be the winners, DC
should be the winners, RCB should not be in this league.
RCB should not be in this league.
Yeah, I mean, let's start off with let's start off with the
bowling. So you're talking about I'm
assuming you're talking about Lauren Bell, who was just
fantastic this season. So I'll I'll open the floor to
the others. So Neha Pradeep Shan, please
come in and talk about what was what was so special about RCB
this season and why do you think they won?
I mean, honestly, the win just happened, you know, like last
night, you know, at the time of recording.
So it's still, you know, like they're processing the emotions
that this win has happened because I mean, pulling off like
possibly the highest run chase right now.
WPL finalists again, like how Tartha said, they just made made
it seem like a walk in the park, right, the way the win just went
about. But there's a lot of positives,
you know, through the season itself that has helped.
I think one thing was the fact that they had a different match
winner almost every single game, right, Especially in the league
phase itself, just getting off to those back-to-back wins.
It was just feeling like a fever dream, right?
At some point we would just snap out of it and be like, yeah,
this is not happening at I think at some point my podcast to I
mentioned like, that's probably just like screenshot this table
and like stop the league, like just declare RCBS winners.
Was it like, you know, sometime it could possibly just come to
an end and actually did have that reality check in between
now and the tournament too. But again, just coming to the
positives in this tournament itself, I think it's impossible
not to talk about Lauren Belle, right?
I think it's been spoken to death about how the RCB social
media team has just been making so many AI edits of her, you
know, just walking through forests and like walking through
desserts and just ensuring, you know, it just ends up as
forests. But jokes apart, I think the way
she's been bowling this season, right?
The Lauren Belle 2.0 version that everyone keeps talking
about has done that for for as well with those wickets.
Again, the wickets column might not necessarily reflect that,
but the way she's just been so economical.
A lot of people take dot balls for granted in T 20s and she's
just made, you know, dot balls so cool, right, With the
variations that she's brought in her repertoire as well.
I think for me, she has to be like right up there with the
positives. If you let me, I'll just keep
talking about a lot of other points.
I think the other panellists can probably add on, but she
definitely has to be like right up there.
I think I agree with Neha because one of my first thoughts
also, and one of the earlier pieces that I had written was
along these very lines where at least in the group stage, at
least in like the first four or five games, every game threw up
a different star. You either had Nadine de Klerk,
you had Priyanka Patil, you had Smriti Mandhana.
So all of these players come in clutch.
But more importantly, I think something that was discussed
preseason as well is that in the absence of Alice Perry, who's
going to step up? And I feel like Smiti Mandhana
there has played a really good role because for the longest
time and something that we've also kind of seen her do over
the years in T 20s, at least when it comes to the WPL, 2024
was a good season for her, but we feel like she's not reached
her potential in this format and this time for sure, I think that
was a big difference. One of the things is her game
again, spin improved. I think one of the factors was
how she plays off spin. All of that is something that
came a full circle for her. I think she's gotten much better
there. But even in the power play for
her, I think one of the biggest differences we saw is that
despite her power play strike rate having dropped a bit, what
helped was that Grace Harris was on top who was able to take
charge and take the attack, which let Mandana settle in and
then take her own explosive way in the middle overs.
This was one of the biggest differences I I'll have to
search for the numbers, but Mandana has gotten so much
better in just holding her wicket in the power play period
so that she can expand in the middle of us.
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I think I have to
completely agree with what Pratib and Neh have to say,
right? I mean, Lauren Bell, Nadine
Leclerc and Priti Mandhana, I believe these three are the
players that have perhaps been the most pivotal to RC BS
campaign this year. And obviously all of us at the
start of the season, I was very, very pessimistic about RCBII had
no idea how they're going to fill the at least very void
because the level of impact that she had over the last three
seasons, it really seemed impossible.
But just the fact that so many different match winners came up,
I mean, rather had won them a game with the back.
Who would have ever thought that We were all like, we, we just
had no idea why they were playing rather than at #5 But
ultimately she won them a game and that was also a difficult
situation, right? It's not like they won out of,
you know, they were not cruising through it.
And there have been those sorts of games where they just, you
know, cruise there that they were in a bit of a like, you
know, tricky situation, but they were able to come back up and,
you know, show that they are a good team and they can deal with
these adversities as well, right, Even in the final, to an
extent. I mean, as, as envy points out
that truly it was rather had of a finish of the game, right.
And honestly, the winning moment was very weird for me because I
couldn't really tell if it's a four or not because of the whole
hit wicket thing. I I was like, is it a hit
wicket? Wait, wait, wait.
And my dad was like, no, no, no, they they won, they won.
That was a bit, you know, that was funny to watch.
But of course, I mean Lauren Bell's impact right at the
start. And I think Sally Sadhgiri also
played a very important role in supporting her at the start,
because initially they were going with Lindsey Smith.
And I think perhaps that didn't work out the best for them, But
just the fact that in every single phase you can say that
RCB had a match winner from start to end with both bat and
ball. So I mean, that is a pretty
special thing for a team to be able to do.
Yeah, yeah. I cannot believe Radha Yadav,
who won them, who won them came Like, I, I'm sorry, but this is,
this is the stuff that that's of legends like rather Yadav has no
business coming in at #5 Guys, come on.
Like my brain, they broke my brain when they did that the
first time. And even if you remember that
innings initially, I think she was like 3 of 10 or something
and we were all in the group probably just being like, what
is happening. But then she flicks the switch.
I think she hits a six and a four.
I can't remember who the bowler was.
Can someone point that out? But I think it was like the 7th
or the 8th over. And then she really, you know,
played a proper innings. And Richard Ghosh at the other
end, she was incredible. And I think one another theme
that I've been noticing with RCB is that they have minimized dot
balls to quite an extent. And even when they have, you
know, that game against Mumbai where Richard Ghosh played a
Brill innings in a losing cause that was the game where RCV of
the past. I mean, especially the men's
teams and all, they would have just collapsed there.
I mean, 35 for five, likely there would have been less than
49 or maybe even, you know, 60-70 all out, game over.
But the fact that Richard goes played it smart, right?
She didn't go for the win. It made no sense to go for them
when you had to preserve the net run rate, and she did that so,
so smartly. I mean, I couldn't catch that
game live because I was busy with something else.
But when I saw the whole game ball by ball later on, I was so
impressed with the level of game smarts that she had.
That's fair. You you want to come back and.
Yeah, no, I think these guys have covered a lot of it, right?
You've covered it too. Rather, Yadav is not my favorite
player. I mean, I got nothing against
her personally, but to have her at #5 to have her as your four
choice bowler is a lot of faith, which I just don't have in her.
But yeah, I mean, she worked out, she scored the winning
runs. She had that 160 run innings
that won us a match. It, it is true.
I, I, I kind of wish the season was longer because I want to see
if this is a luck based thing or if it's actually replicable that
every game someone else just stands up because it's not been,
Oh, I'll come in and give you a six on 10 performance.
It's I'll come in and give you 10 on 10.
I'll give you one on 10. Those are the two options.
There is no, oh, I'm just consistent.
So it's a really interesting team and as far as I can tell,
it's one of the few cricket teams where the power of a star
is more important than the power of team construction.
Where Mandra and Bella have been brilliant and just whoever has
shown up on the day has been good enough.
You've not needed like this. Oh, you know, we need to own
this phase and need to own that. Like yesterday, RC VS bowling
was worse. They worst at MI's bowling.
MI's batting was great. Like they did a really good job.
None of it mattered. Voltage showed up and demolished
everyone and then Mandra went OK, cool, I've given you 6 overs
now I'm going to demolish everyone and it just didn't
matter at all. It was incredible, Yeah.
There was a calmness about it. And I think one of the
interesting things I heard Smitty Mandana say at the end,
was it her or I think I read this on Cricinfo, that she said
that after the auction, we all got phone calls from the
management telling them that, OK, this is your role.
This is what you need to prepare for for this franchise.
And I think just that level of role clarity is really
important, especially in the 20s.
Like, OK, in this situation you will do this.
If that doesn't happen, you know, continue to do this,
etcetera. So just talking about what you
know about their management and the cricket management this
season, does anyone want to talk about that?
What's the general sentiment on Malulu and the coach is what
I'll open to the folks? Yeah, I don't know.
It's very interesting, right? Because obviously we don't have
any insight on how the workings are exactly, but RCP does this
thing where even on YouTube, for example, they've put out these
documentary style videos where they've sort of shown their
process or what it looks like. So from that front and from
whatever I do know about how data is looked at in the game,
at least RCBS ahead as compared to a lot of the other teams when
it comes to just understanding how data can be used.
So I don't know how many other teams are looking at phase wise
play or looking at balls for boundary ratios or whatever it
is. But at least on that front, it
does look like RCB is able to use the data to their advantage.
Some of the decisions of course still feel very waivered.
Some of the selection that we've spoken about through the entire
tournament have felt waivered, but even something as simple as
getting inside this upgrade, if you notice a lot of the other
WPL teams, they've struggled to have that second U ball bowler
who can actually swing the ball. And in this case, the other way,
most teams just have to win swing bowlers or they have one
seam bowler and someone who can maybe swing the ball.
So even small things like this where you bring in that variety
is definitely something that I think the management has
actively tried to do. Yeah, that's right.
Anyone else any any comments on Malawan?
I'll probably just add a quick point here about Malone and
himself. I mean the kind of criticism
that the man receives on a constant basis online, right?
I think some of the RSV fans just love making fun of him and
just mocking him all the time for all of his strategies.
I think for the longest time, the whole rather had a promotion
to that number 5 position was something that I was like, what
is happening here? Like is there something that the
man sees that we don't in spite of all of that, you know, ensure
that the strategies have worked out well?
I think it's the, you know, reflects like, well, in his CB
and all of that. But as Tartha said, right, if
the season was like longer, would these experiments have
worked? Could things have like been
slightly different? It's something we'd definitely
have to see. And just to like slightly go on
a tangent here, I think a lot of people just end up criticizing
him as a coach because they're like, hey, what are his
credentials? Has he even played, you know,
like enough domestic cricket? Has he played international
cricket? Like what makes him suitable to
be up there? OK, not sure.
Like what are the basis that people are judging him on,
right, Because you have a lot of like coaching certification,
kind of an experience that comes in hand.
You're not you don't necessarily have to be like a player of a
certain caliber to be a coach, right?
Because if that was the, you know, parameter for everything
that you've had to had, like you have to play the game to, you
know, like comment about it. And I think most of us arms are
experts who just have to like shut our laptops and just like
sit and just boss the game, right?
Not talk about it. So I think some fans can get a
little unfair in their criticism and it's not coming from a place
of rational. You can obviously like question
decisions, but to like get on a personal level, I think a lot of
fans just end up doing that. And sometimes RCB fans
themselves are, you know, guilty of putting their own courses
down. That's fine.
OK, so I think for me, what was really interesting about CB
season was also the one match where the clerk came back from
behind and wanted like that completely super impossible
situation. Like I was like, what what is
she? Is she just doing what she does
for South Africa but in a more accelerated, like smaller
format? I was I was extremely impressed
with that. And I think when you saw a team
where, you know, she's a new player, new players come in, Vol
comes in and just immediately succeeds right away, that speaks
to their management, right? So, OK, so we're going to go to
talking about. A specialty from from Karnataka
is Benedosa. So who was the Benedosa of RCB
this year? Like one player who you think
they could not have done without and who's delicious from a team
composition perspective. No other reason.
I think I'm going to leave Who's Delicious in Neha and stay far
away from that question. Yeah, we probably, I had to
address this one again. It's a tough one, right?
But my pick definitely has to be Lauren Bell, right?
I think just to imagine an RCB bowling lineup without her is
impossible, right? The impact that she has had, we
can probably dedicate an entire episode just dissecting her
entire bowling analysis itself. So at least for me, she
definitely has to be like right up there.
Just can't imagine, you know, this victorious campaign without
her. I mean, the social media team
didn't have a field day with all the edits that they did, but
still, right, her back like on the field is just was just
unparalleled. And I think we were having a
discussion, right, like in one of the groups about her possibly
being chosen as the MVP is, well, right.
She was very much in that race. I mean, she should have been
considered. But I think they're just such a
batting obsessed nation that we just don't care enough about our
bowlers. And this T20 format itself is
like, just so unforgiving to bowlers, right?
Yeah. I'd probably end my rant at
that. And hopefully my answer is like,
like just make sense. Oh, it, it really does.
I think one of the most interesting analysis that I read
was the one about Deepti Sharma countering Lauren Bell and how
much, how much work went into that when she came and opened
for UP Warriors. So that was right.
It was, it was in your letter. He, he looks confused right
there. He's like.
What it took me a second to go Deepti Sharma.
That's the wrong team. No, but yeah, I know.
No, I she is the easy answer. I mean, Mandra has also had an
unbelievably good season. We've kind of taken her for
granted with how good she plays and how much she does for the
team. But yeah, the point is fair when
you have like a 60% dodgeball percentage across an entire
season in T 20s, I don't really think you can go beyond that.
Like, cap is the gold standard in the WPL and Bell has made her
look distinctly second place. And it's it's good timing on her
part. She's got a home World Cup in a
couple of months, swing conditions.
It should work out for her. Hopefully they play Lindsay
Smith as a second power play bowler so the rest of us can
have an out. But yeah, Lauren Bell has to be
the easy answer here. I don't think we even come close
without her. All right, so I'm going to ask
you all for your final ratings and we we're going to rate them
out of not out of just 10. We're going to rate them out of
10 specific items. And So what is your rating for
RCB season out of 10 cricket balls that the clerk has hit out
of the park. So what's, what's your rating
for RCB season overall? I think less than 10 is not
acceptable. Are you talking how are we
reading this? Is it how happy are we with the
season? Is it how sustainable this is?
Is it like what? How are we reading?
What the criteria? I mean, in, in general, like,
OK, let's say compared to their last season that they won, you
know, how is this how, how is this season?
So about a 75 out of 10. I mean, they went from not
making the playoffs to winning in incredible fashion.
So I think, yeah, I don't really have.
I have lots of criticisms, but all of my criticism seems valid
apparently. So yeah, I just got to go with
the flow, I think. We agree with this rating.
Shannon Pratip. This.
I mean, this time around, yeah. Like with the number of things
that could have gone sideways with the way they picked their
squads and ultimately how it worked out for them, probably
8-8 and 1/2 on 10, because there's definitely scope for
improvement and there's definitely they have some
quality players. But if they are able to sustain
this in the long run, that's what we'll get them to a proper
10, yeah. I think it's interesting, right
when if we talk about the last season that RCB won, they
actually came back from behind and won that season.
Like at one point it seemed like they're not going to win that
season after that one run lost, right?
It just looked very difficult for them, but they managed to
come back and that was all the back of some great individual
performances and that was a proper star-studded team.
In some ways this team has been very good, but it doesn't have
the same number of stars. In some ways I would say they
don't have an Elise Perry or a Sophie Molyneux or even a Sophie
Divine for that matter. They don't have a lot of stars.
They have very good players. They have like like a lot, like
I said, lots of players have done well in their particular
roles, but I still feel that this team over performed a bit.
I mean, I think maybe it's just our bias because coming into the
tournament we were all like, no, no, no, RCV is not a good team
and all of that. So I would say that it like, you
know, exceed my expectations quite a bit.
And compared to the last season, this was a more clinical season
purely if we judge them on their performances, right.
So I would give them a nine out of 10.
Neha looks happy with that. Yeah, because that's exactly the
number I was probably looking at, right.
I think the kind of season that RCB had this time around was
like straight out of a Bollywood movie itself.
I could care off to like that perfect star, you know, so many
wins on on the tort and suddenly, like, you know, your
qualification is the seed, but you want to make your presence
in the fine that you have this few losses and then again, you
know, come back and win. So I definitely say it that
there are like areas of criticism and, you know,
pointers that they keep in mind right, going ahead too, because
that number three position against Georgia Wall did well.
But then there was like a little bit of experimentation that was
happening back in. And sometimes I think the
bowling too, right, can get just heavily reliant on Lauren Bell.
And could Prema Raut have been included?
Why is Pooja Vasrikar not bowling?
It's just a lot of questions. It's just me nitpicking.
But in all fairness, just if I'm talking from a fan sentiment,
I'm just putting on the fan cap itself.
I think I'd probably say, you know, like this was that 10 on
10 sort of a season. And like Taratra keeps saying,
right, the win doesn't make since the fact that it has
happened has just probably still left us in denial.
Like, I think the four of us are just like, in denial.
Like what just happened actually is 1.
But then to probably process this sub in itself, right?
Like, in the light of all the information that we have and all
the stats and everything, I think it's still quite the
momentous feat and something we'd remember much more fondly,
you know, rather than the 24 win, which sort of, you know,
set the ball rolling. But now they've just made
winning a habit, champion, mindset, DNA and all of that.
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
So Speaking of a champion mindset, we're we're going to
come to our other finalist who's been forever been a finalist,
right? So our cohost Sartuck, he has,
he has a tweet which says, you know, Can you imagine being
Marzon Cap runner up at the T20 World Cup in 20/22/2024, the ODI
World Cup in 25 and now 4 out of Four Seasons in the WPL
consistently being a finalist and not winning.
What is she going to do to make them win?
Four daughters both. But seriously, I think Cap can
do right. She's brilliant.
She could have done a little bit more in the World Cup final,
last one the last year, but in the WPL this is not at all.
It's really hard to say what DC did wrong.
They just, they have the, they have an incredible bowling
attack that is useless against one player in that world.
And one player seems to be Smriti Mantra.
And I don't, I really am sitting here after the game having
analyzed it. I don't know too much about what
DC could have done worse because they didn't concede any between
8 and 15 runs. That's it, right?
It was 1 / 7, one over 16, but it's basically 8 and 15.
They were, they didn't get hit, they didn't concede too many
singles, They just got beat by a better team, like by two
players. They got beat and they still
almost pulled it off. Got a couple of wickets at the
end. Put some nervousness back in the
RCB fan. So from just yesterday's
perspective I it's hard to criticize them too much.
Overall I actually think they're on a pretty good trajectory.
I think Jeremy has been an inspired choice of captain.
The first couple of like the first week or so was iffy, but
the last week has been fantastic.
From what I've seen. She uses a bowl as well.
She feels well, she trusts her team, she leads by example.
She's kind of even as an RCV fan and Mandara fan, she kind of has
me going. Maybe Jamie should jump the key
a little bit for Team India. She's been really good.
Yeah. And do you want to come in
Pratib, we haven't heard from you in a bit about DC.
Delhi Capitals should try and reduce their choker score and to
do that they'll have to quick lesser South African players in
their team. That's honestly the only way
it's going to work out for them because you have 3 S Africans
and it just follows them. The tag of chokers just follows
them across tournaments across years.
But yeah, I think spot on. We've mostly done a lot of
things like there's not too much that even from a game analysis
point of view that you'd look at and you'd say, you know, there's
definitely something that's gone wrong.
If anything, at the halfway mark, at least in the final, we
felt that it's totally their game.
It the pitch was of course a better one to bat on as compared
to what we've been seeing in the second leg.
But even for them, the way they backed it through the middle
overs, especially Jimmy Rodriguez and Laura Blvd.
I think they pasted beautifully. Like literally the only thing I
can think of is maybe Blvd. not getting enough strike to explode
in possibly the last four. But Chanel Henry anyways did a
good job. So like, what do you look at and
what do you say? And maybe the one thing is they
would have had Sri Charani step up a little more because she's
someone who, if she gets on a role, can really run through a
side, can get multiple wickets. But yeah, really it's it's just
unlucky for them. Maybe they need to change
something in their setup or whatever it is.
But yeah, like just hard luck. Yeah, DCI.
OK, first of all, I need to apologize and give a really
deep, heartfelt apology to Laura Blvd.
I disrespected you before the tournament.
I said that perhaps this wasn't your format and maybe you
wouldn't make it to the team. And my God, have I been proof
and proven wrong? Do you want to come in and talk
about DCA little bit? Yeah, I think it's after a
point. It just becomes a little
hilarious now that every time they make the final and they
don't win, I mean, it feels, you know, there's a sort of team
because as I said, they were my first love in the IPL.
So I always have like the soft corner for them.
And even in the women's team, they've always had players that
I've really liked, right? I mean, Jimmy, they had, they
have animals even now, right? Lots of players in their team.
You want to root for those sorts of players simply because of how
good they are in terms of quality and how they conduct
themselves on the field. So I don't know, like yesterday,
I feel the only thing where they probably went wrong was the
first three overs where Lauren will bowl really well and she
was able to keep Lizzie Lee quiet.
Because apart from that, if you break down the game from a face
by face basis, there really wasn't much to separate between
the two teams. Possibly the cash that Jimmy
dropped in the 19th over. I feel like that is one thing
which could have maybe, you know, put a little more
pressure, especially with pretty just having gotten out a couple
like the ball before or the ball like in that's very over, right.
So I just feel like if that was something they could have, it
was not even a choke, right? It's not like they were in a
position of power. And from there, do you know,
they bowled, they didn't like bowl absolutely terribly or, you
know, came back like the worst possible situation for us.
It was possibly 8 or 4 in the whole game.
They were just in so much control.
I, I was talking to Deepak yesterday on 1st umpire when we
were doing the final podcast and he was also saying the same
thing, like what could he have done differently?
And maybe if they bowled cup kept another over for Cap later
on. But then you could also you
could also argue that you want cap in the power play, right?
You don't really want her to, you know, hold back her overs
when RCB are going all against blazing especially, you want to
take those early wickets, right? And that's what you expect from
a player of that quality. And I, I don't know, maybe one
very interesting point actually that Deepak brought up in a chat
yesterday was that RCB have a lot of paces in the middle overs
who can sometimes roll those back of a lens, slower balls,
cutters, those sorts of stuff, right.
DC are a bit more spin reliant in the middle overs, which I
actually found thought this was a very interesting point.
And I think apart from that, yeah, it's very hard to blame
that this time. And if you look at their
trajectory in the finals, even the final last year, they should
have honestly won. They were just using what, 150
odd. Yeah, I guess Mumbai.
I don't know how they lost that final either.
Again, this one, in this one, to be fair, they didn't really seem
in the game in the second innings.
It was just RTB just seemed like the better side to be very
honest. Yeah, they just dominated.
And do you want to do you want to come in about their batting
specifically? Like what was interesting about
their batting this season? Any and I'll open for, I'll open
the floor to everyone. Like any interesting stats about
DC's batting specifically? So I actually have a couple of
numbers, and this is specifically for the Vadodara
like, which I'd like to think was more suited to this type of
batting because in the middle overs, especially when the
pitches were not that good, strike rotation was extremely
important. And something that we've
actually spoken about on length across groups is basically the
strike rotation aspect, right? Because in the Vadodara leg, of
the top six run scorers, you have three of the batters from
DC. Of course you have Jamie and
Laura, but also Lizelli on top. It doesn't matter as much to
rotate strike because it's a new ball.
You have the field, the only two fielders outside.
So Lizelli makes it there because she can hit the
boundaries. But if you look at non boundary
strike rates for Jamie, Ma Rodriguez as well as Laura
Wolwart, it's upwards of 75. And to give you context, only
Beth Mooney is another player who features in that list.
And this is for anyone who's got at least 150 plus runs in the
world that like. So I think that was their
biggest 10th is that they just bossed the middle overs
irrespective of who was bowling, irrespective of how the pitch
was. And it was definitely worse than
Navi Mumbai for the most part. So that's a number that I will
throw which is going to help them at least in the long run
for sure. Yeah.
I think just to add on to that point, just yesterday Wulvark
played 25 balls, didn't face a single dot in.
Isn't point. It's ridiculous.
Like Mandraf also did this amazing thing of facing just
four dots but then it gets blown away by no dots.
Like I've never heard of anyone playing no dots.
Like I was looking it up going I can't remember the last time
Abhishek Sharma played no dots. The gay breaks cricket Woolvark
is incredible. Like the more you read about
Woolvark, right, she is this unbelievable player who to me
it's a very close battle at the top of cricket of Mandnas 1A,
Wolvat 1B, because Manda has higher highs.
But Wolvat just can do everything.
She can be your slow anchor. She can be the death overs
hitter. She can be this.
Oh, I'm going to be in the background where Jeremy
Rodriguez and Henry hit everything and just keep the
ball going. She just can do everything.
She doesn't have a weakness to her game.
It's quite incredible. Yeah, that's, I think DC's
batting was probably the plus point.
Envy. Was it you who had the comment
about Nikki Prasad's entry points like they're looking not
as I think in the early DC games it looked like, you know, she
had to come on early and did not really relish that role.
Do you does anyone have any comments on that?
Yeah, I think they they haven't figured what should be her entry
points and nor have they figured like what's the best position
for her to bat and like does she need more balls to play at the
start or does she need to accelerate at the end?
I think she's there because there's obvious talent.
And I think that's why I think, and we'll go back, we'll go back
to this eventually over a long period of time in, in at least
the WPL till, till we have just these five teams and these
tournaments having in such a small, short span of time is the
benefit of having a longer season is, is how you get to
know about these teams much more in depth.
I mean, these teams have more than 20/20/20 odd players,
right? So that, that's, that should be
great for a, for a longish season as well.
And now we only see role clarity is coming for, for very, very
few teams. I mean, most teams are still
finding and, and that is also something we are told in our
preview that most teams are going to struggle to find their
11. And I think it's, it's that and
that's not going to change. And, and it's not their fault.
It's the fault of this season being created in in a very
random fashion, snuck between India and New Zealand and and
like the Under 19 World Cup also, and then the pressure of
closing it on a Thursday. All of those things.
None of this means that Nikki Rosa shouldn't be in the 11.
She she must be in the 11. I probably just wanted to add in
here a point about, you know, just the larger utilization,
right of the Indian uncapped players by most of these
franchises, right? It's just been quite sad because
take the case of UP Warriors, what they did, which Shweta
said, I was bringing her in like so much lower in that batting
order. Nikki Prasad, case in point for
daily Capitals, I mean, you have retained them for a reason,
right? You send some potential in this
players and even like a basic look at stats itself, right,
We'll give you that we'll give you an idea that Shweta set out
again is someone who bats like right up top in that batting
order don't have to go too far to see her under 19 World Cup
itself right See what she's done in the Delhi Premier League what
she companies to do for her state team as well.
Nikki Prasad too right again bats in that top 4 for Karnataka
itself. So for me, I think it's just the
criminal underutilization of Indian uncapped sources, you
know, resources by these teams that really like stands out so
much and then you expect them to perform and do the thing because
I think Nikki Prasad did get some hate, you know, like, oh,
you know, she is not able to score runs like the SAKSAU and
all of that. But but just actually go look at
her numbers domestically, right? Her strike rates don't cross
more than 100, at least this time.
And I, I just like to say, yeah, that I hope there is some
foresight into like the planning itself, right?
If you really need to be strategic about like just using
these players better. And I hope Delhi takes some
learnings, right? Because like 4 times unlucky
again, I'm not telling that's the only reason that they lost.
But then four times unlucky. I, I think law of answers will
catch up at some point. Cricketing gods will have to,
you know, just do some justice in that regard.
But then this was one point that really stuck out to me.
And yeah. Yeah.
How much did DC miss Sarah Bryce this season?
I mean, I feel like they really were able to use their advantage
last year and this year. Yeah, I, I just feel felt like
they didn't have that, that little explosion that you need
some somewhere in the middle or late order that sort of forgives
your score of more of an impetus, especially because I
think they lost some close games, right.
So that's, that's I think one of the things that stood out to me
with DC and I think in the pre tournament preview, what we had
talked about is that basically DC's weakness, not specifically
their battings, actually their bowling, their bowlers are good.
They're they're all really great.
Like Minumani had a great season.
Towards the end, not in the first half, her first half
season was not was not good at all.
She came in and I think she needed to get Mandanas wicket in
that one game where she came in to sort of get her mojo back.
You know, Sneerana not necessarily the best of spinner.
I feel like if you have both Minu and Sneer, that doesn't
really give you a lot of flexibility in the middle overs.
I don't remember who it was who said that they're very spin the
land in the middle overs compared to perhaps RCB.
So I thought DC were definitely a fast bowler shot.
But Nandini Sharma, a word about her.
You, you can start Neha and then we'll go back round.
Yeah, because I think you could just see my face just break into
this white smile, right? Nandini Sharma has been
undoubtedly the fine of the season, right?
For Daily Capitals, at least for her Stateside, she had been
doing well with credit to, you know, DC scouts for actually
getting her into the setup. She served as a net bowler, you
know, for some other franchises in the past.
And you know, come this season, I think she's been such a
revelation, right? I think one of the very few
Indian bowlers was able to bowl that back of the hand.
They'll be so beautiful. He's able to mix up her pace,
bowls well up front and later too.
I think she's definitely one to watch out for, right Again,
hasn't been chosen for that. Australia too, but you know,
playing like for India, I think she'll largely benefit.
That experience will come through and hopefully she can
probably stake a claim for a place in the team when probably
the squad is chosen right for the T20 World Cup itself.
She can be that surprise package because when you look at the
other paces and how they perform, take the likes of
Ranti, Gautam Kashmir, Gautam and all of them, they've
probably not had that sort of a season.
And I think Nandini Sharma has done enough to, you know, sort
of throw a hat in the ring and be like, hey, you know, probably
she can be like, I can be considered.
And she definitely has, I think a lot in store too.
I think she was like a massive, massive positive.
And again, it's lovely to see, right, like India producing a
crop of like fast bowlers who can actually do a good job.
It's just to see like how she will be continued to like be
nurtured within the system itself.
And hopefully she goes along with like a great start this
season. And very fittingly.
So it was also, I think about it like the emerging player of the
season award too, right? Would have been great if she
could have capped it off with a purple cap as well.
But yeah, we we take wins like that.
Almost Taruta, do you want to come in about DC's bowling and
Nandini Sharma? Any words?
Particularly, she may have mentioned this, but the back of
the handball during the Women's World Cup.
This was a topic that me, Cheyenne Pratib, a couple of
others were part of the coverage did of Animal Sutherland, how
she basically decimated the entire World Cup with this back
of the handball during the middle overs.
And obviously Nandi Sharma, not at that level yet, but it's
pretty close. Like it's hard to diagnose that
on the fly when you're playing it.
And she is very, very consistent.
Like she puts the ball where she wants to put the ball like it
did start flying all over the place.
She doesn't get flustered if you get hit for a boundary.
She wanted, I think how she played ball yesterday was a
great example of everyone else was just chucking the sink it
up, including someone like Gab. And only time I went, hey, you
know what, I'm going to put a fielder on deep wicket and I'm
going to hit your stops. And that's all it is.
So the only way you're going to score a boundary is by hitting a
deep wicket. And that's what Charlie end up
doing as well. And I think, I can't remember
who got her out, but they got her out to that ball.
And the over before Vol got out, she hit it to the boundary off
Nandi Sharma and it had dropped between two fielders who got
confused about who was going to catch the ball.
So and it she did that for four overs.
She didn't get hit by Volt. She was the only baser not to
get hit by Volt. So it's she knows what she's
doing and she executed really, really well, which is very
impressive for someone that young and that fresh to it to
this is a, it's a jump in quality to go to the WPL.
So to do this against the best batters in the world alongside
some of the best bowlers in the world.
And I think there's there's a lot of room for improvement
there, which is kind of crazy considering how good she already
is. Yeah, like just adding on.
Sorry, yeah, just adding on to Tarutra's point on Nandini, I
think often because of the event and the stage and all of that,
you tend to forget some of the basics that a lot of players get
right. So the accuracy bit is actually
a huge point because even some Indian national, someone like
Renuka Singh Thakur, who's so experienced, one of her biggest
issues this season was the fact that she wasn't consistent with
her accuracy, right? Those in swingers starting on
middle or middle and leg and then just going down for whites.
So keeping that in mind and the kind of stage that this is for
Nandini Sharma on debut to be able to pull off that kind of
accuracy. And I think the first time you
sort of noticed that was also when she was bowling to Sophie
Devine, where Sophie Devine was going bonkers in that game where
she scored 90 odd and we thought we'd finally get a WPL century.
But Sir Nandini Sharma, the clarity of thought in knowing
that, OK, her slow ball, her back of the hand slow balls been
hit. So what's her next option?
She goes for a bouncer. She's not afraid of using that
sort of delivery. And I think that clarity is
already setting her apart from so many of the other bowlers.
Even someone like Kranti Goud who's played for India, there's
still moments you see where if she's getting hit, she tends to
get hit for a lot of which I've not seen with Nandini as of this
season at least. So I'm.
I'm going to bring you in Chen now, so I'm going to ask you any
any comments you have for DC and who is the Sansa Stark of DC,
which means basically who's the Queen of the North for DCI?
Don't know. I think it's see.
With Delhi, I think we talked about Nandini Sharma, right?
What's really been interesting to me is that she hasn't even
taken the new ball that consistently, right.
She has been like this first team sort of a bowler, which I
think make makes her her skills even more valuable because you
get new ball bowlers still. But the fact that she can bowl
in those current situations towards closing the power plate
through the middle overs, through the end of the innings,
I think that's what makes a stand out.
And another very interesting standard had looked up actually
for Delhi while we were having this conversation was that in
the Vadodara Lake, they are the only team who have an average
like north of 30 when it comes to power play batting.
And they were at 45. The next, all the other teams
were at 24/24/20 and 18. So something about batting in
the power play in Vadodara, I don't know.
Delhi seem to have. So, yeah.
And I think I feel like they were really good in the fact
that they were nailing those low scoring chases, right.
But in the final, they battered first time they put up more than
200. So we can't really follow their
batting all that which at all. And if I have to pick a, you
know, queen of the north from the daily capitals, it's
probably Nandini, right? I mean, we probably didn't
expect that, you know, she's going to have this level of an
impact because we hadn't seen much of her at this level.
And if we have to go with perhaps the most established
stars, I was very much looking forward to watch Lizzie Lee,
right, Because I've said that in the preview as well.
With that, you know, she has been someone who has absolutely
dominated the WBVL and international cricket.
She was a six header like she was a pioneer when it came to 6
heading in the women's game. So I feel like she had a very
good season. Their entire top 4 is very
interesting to me because of very contrasting styles of play.
Like and Pratib and I, we were having this discussion yesterday
where when you watch Jamie and Blvd. back, there's an element
of Virat Kohli to it where they just minimize their dot balls
completely. They don't, you know, they keep
taking the singles, double, single, double s and they still
score at a pretty respectable run rate, right?
Yesterday, we can't really fault either of their, you know, 23345
when it comes to the scoring rate.
Honestly, it was just literally in the first few overs that also
down to brilliant going from Laurenville.
Not because, you know, it wasn't that Lizelli lacked intent or
anything. She was trying to move around
the crease, try to, you know, nullify the swing, but it just
didn't come off for her. And when she, I think she, you
know, became more stable in the crease, then she started getting
those boundaries. And she also eventually caught
up to an extent because the start she got was pretty bad.
But after that, you know, it's just been a really good season.
Even Cherani for that matter, she was not very good in the
Navy like, but then she came back really strong in the
Vadodara. Like, even Jimmy, when we talk
about, you know, showing that sort of responsibility and, you
know, not really making, she just makes sure that the game is
under control when she is batting there.
So I feel like that was a really, you know, positive thing
for them that she can do it under the captaincy pressure as
well. And yeah, that's very cool.
OK. So do you agree with that
analysis, Nandini as the, I mean as his answer, no.
I think if you're going Queen of the North, it has to.
Be Jimmy, right? She's been.
She's become so good this season.
Like, she's not been regularly good in WPL.
She's not been regularly good in WPL.
This year. The first week was not great,
but she's stepped up so much, so fast that the 50 in the final
just went, yeah, that's what she's supposed to do.
It's kind of an incredible thing to just be part of the furniture
that quickly while also figuring out how to be captain.
So yeah, I'm still going. Jimmy, that's Nandari is great.
She's awesome. Gap is unbelievable.
Blvd. is top five players, like top five favorite players for me
right now in the world. But still has to be Jimmy.
She run that team, so has to be her team.
Neha Pratap, you agree? But I think for me it's going to
be a slightly. Left field choice here with
Lizelli, right? And the reason I bring her name
up is I think just coming to the season itself, a lot of people
didn't expect her to do well, right?
They think they were thinking that no should be found out.
You know, WPL is a very different source, you know, in
comparison to probably the domestic cricket she plays in.
Australia isn't the WBL for that matter.
I mean, the fact that she's managed to, you know, see the
place in that Delhi playing 11 is amongst the highest run
getters itself. And in spite of all the
criticism and scrutiny about the way she looks itself, I think
she's really made that sort of an impact, right?
I think she's just gone on to show then you can look a certain
way and you can you can still actually contribute to the
team's cause. And I think it's just very, it's
one of those very uplifting and inspiring stories itself.
I was hoping she could possibly make her come back for South
Africa as well. But now, you know, she has
Australian citizenship and she's entirely, you know, shifted with
her family there. But then I think it's just for
me, you know, like the kind of season she had for the longest
time, I've just wanted her to, you know, be a part of the WP in
some shape, form capacity in spite of all the criticism too.
But, you know, to see her have this sort of a season and the
backing that she got from Delhi itself, right, was really,
really nice to see. There's still some areas of the
game she needs to work on probably, you know, the keeping
side of things. But again, that comes down to
how DC, you know, wants to figure out there, you know,
keeper conundrum, so to say, because Lizelli cannot be your
answer for that. But as a batter, I wouldn't
fault her for anything. And like on more occasion she's
given them those sort of electric starts and quite
deservingly, you know, deserves to be in that like highest run
getters list too. My point but I think so this.
I'm surprised no one's brought up Shafali.
I think she had a quiet season, right?
I think not, Not her usual, but I, I feel like she's made a lot
of improvements to her game. But yeah, but I think you're up.
And you can also start with your rating for DC.
So this time the rating is out of 10.
And then these slower balls. I think DC would be just a shade
below RCB, so probably 8. I gave RCB 8.5, so I think I'd
give DC-8 barring possibly the first couple of games where I
think they were just figuring out a lot of things and there
were a lot of moving pieces. Once it settled into the like,
once they got past that hectic week of a lot of games, very
closely back, they were a solid team.
And I think one of the biggest things, so for me, the queen
would be Jimmy also for the fact that she was captain and just
the trust factor in the players. Because if we look at the
elevens that they chose, after a point, there was consistency in
the elevens. There was no uncertainty in the
fact that, OK, maybe this player is not performed, so I'm going
to switch this player out. We saw that a fair bit with
someone like RCB or some of the other sides, but I think Jimmy
on a captaincy front was very happy to say, OK, I'm going to
back you till the end of the tournament and we'll see how it
goes. So overall, I think just a shade
below RCB 8 is probably what I'd give them.
Yeah, I I would like to cut 1. Point for them never playing
Alana King throughout the that's that's.
A completely different decision, guys.
We can't have a podcast without talking about Lakesman, right?
I mean, I can't believe that Delhi winter, entire season.
Yeah, yeah, I think because. In the previews.
My thing was that they're going to have to pick between Laura
and White or Lizelli right there.
They can't play both of them and they have to play Alana King.
But they didn't play Alana King. I guess we were all wrong.
And they didn't give her a single game as far as I
remember, right. It's very interesting because if
they. Managed to pick Elana King
somehow. Then that would naturally solve
your Nikki Prasad problem as well because she'd be pushed
higher into the order. So maybe that's something for
them to think about next season. Yeah.
Yeah, but who do they drop out of?
Lazelli and Laura. That's a difficult question,
right? Who's going to keep?
Depends on that. As well.
Well, that too. Exactly.
Yeah. So if they had.
Sarah Bryce, this wouldn't be a problem.
No, I'd actually defend. DC on this because a lot of
things great clearly, but you need lead to keep you need Blvd.
and DC's bowling doesn't make sense without Henry.
So it just there is it just is. It's it's crazy that a lot of
key keeps getting teams that don't pick up.
She should come to Bangalore so that we can drop off Abuja
Vasagar. But it's nuts.
I don't know if she's clearly what top five bowlers in the
world right now. She was devastating on Indian
pitches during the World Cup 3 months ago.
I don't know how she doesn't get picked.
But for DC specifically, I actually do see the logic.
But The funny thing is you. Know she might not even start.
For RCB if you think about it. The thing is, she wasn't even
picked in the auction. Yeah, I don't know what Betty
comes back with his. RCB tape.
She's too consistent. We need more Mavericks.
That's true. Consistency it's it's for boring
teams. So Speaking of a team that I
find personally slightly boring compared to the other teams is
Gujarat Giants. They they finished third.
They were in the eliminator. I mean, what what is the biggest
surprise for you about the Gujarat Giants this year?
Ash Gardner doesn't like herself.
Sorry Pratap, Go. Ahead, Go for it.
Go for it. It's very annoying to watch.
I think she's the first captain I've.
Seen like, no, I'm not interested in bowling like 9 out
of 10 times. I think you've heard experts cry
about not having bowler captains because they bowl themselves too
much. And here's Ash Gardner's like,
no, just keep that ball away from me.
But honestly, just taking a moment, you know, talk about.
Gujarat Giants, I think the resurgence that they've had
under Ash Gardner, I'm Michael Slinger, right, has been
phenomenal. The fact that they're able to,
you know, make the playoffs, I think even just looking at their
season, right, they started off with the bank winning those two
matches versus UP and DC, and then they faced like 3
consecutive losses. I think I didn't mention it on
another podcast. It's really similar to how India
also, you know, started out their World Cup, like winning
those matches and then, you know, facing 3 losses.
And to come back and win those three games to, you know, have
destiny, destiny in your own hands and to seal a place in the
playoffs, right? I think massive credit and I
think the biggest surprise for Raghujarat was also the
performance of Sophie Devine, right?
A lot of people felt why are you spending so much money for her?
Like, you know, is she like given birth?
Isn't she past her prime? This is Sophie Devine we're
talking about. The woman ages like fine wine,
right? Every single time steps up when
the team needs it. Again, this is not coming from a
fan perspective. Just have a look at numbers this
time around. 2 right was the purple cap holder and you know,
contributed so much with the bat itself.
Like Gigi is again, such an interesting team.
I feel like they consistently back their Indian uncapped
players or sometimes the experiment doesn't work but the
times it does, right? You have someone like an Anushka
Sharma, you have, you know, a Kashmir Gautam, so to say, Bhati
Fumali too, right? Ever since her India colour, I
know the performance have just like dipped so badly.
But then again, she's a player, right, that Gigi sort of gave
that opportunity to and Kanika Hoja too, right, Although she
was shuffling a little bit across in that batting order,
but still right. I'd say that Gigi is one team
that constantly backs those Indian arm cap players and I
hope they continue to sort of do that.
But again, man, it's been that sort of a season for them.
I thought the eliminator they were like overwhelming favorite,
so to say, because although Delhi did have that sort of an
advantage of, you know, winning, they had that momentum in their
hands. But Gigi sort of fluffed and,
you know, they lost the plot somewhere there.
And you could see how the cap, the dugout itself had, like, cut
out a very sorry figure, it looked like.
So they were just so dejected in some phases of the match, Right.
Again, I think experience, we will see them do better.
But you look at RCB, Delhi and Mumbai, these are teams that
have like a men's equivalent team.
But Gigi and UP voters don't have that cultural heritage or
legacy, so to say, Right. But the fact that Gigi is able
to carve one for itself, I think speaks volumes.
Yeah. Yeah.
And anyone else want to come in? Yeah, just the point you made
about. Not being too fascinating with
them, I'm actually quite curious about that because I thought
they were very fascinating this year.
The batting order is very interestingly built.
It's a couple of runners who opened the power play and some
of that works for them. They've got Ash Garner, who
basically comes in a three as far as I can remember correctly.
They've got wired him and Fulmali at the bottom having
fun, and they both, again, very different players.
Wired him runs more, Fulmali whacks the ball more, but they
end up playing together. It's yeah, yeah, the Divine
part. Obviously Divine's awesome,
especially after that little mental health break.
She took class here. She's come back ridiculously
good. But yeah, I I'm curious as to
why you are not more interested in them.
They have slightly ugly jerseys but apart from that I I think.
It's just I couldn't understand. I couldn't understand what they
were. I feel like, you know, in term
in terms of their batting, I felt like they relied a bit too
much on having full money come in at the end and whack things
around a bit. And I don't know if, I mean, she
had done that a few times last year, but I don't know if she
she was that consistent for them.
And in terms of their bowling, like, I never, I thought they
were a little too reliant on Sophie Devine coming in at the
end and scaring the opposition. So I didn't quite get I, I
didn't quite understand how they were winning.
Like that's, and maybe it's perhaps I didn't watch enough of
their games. Those were the only games I
ended up missing because they weren't on the weekends as much.
And you know, that might just be it, But I just couldn't
understand what was what got them to the eliminator.
And perhaps you can you know someone can help me understand
this? Correct me if I'm wrong but.
At least with Gujar Giants, they played their power plays really
well, so most teams would have one really good bowler like
maybe Delhi Capitals and they were happy to play out that and
then show that they're not losing a wicket there and
maximizing against the other bowlers.
I think your point on how maybe they might have been leaving too
much for the finishers or maybe too much for certain kinds of
players is true. But at the same time, I think
with the pieces they had practically, they made some
really good decisions and I feel like that's what also got them
far enough in the tournament. And I think Anushka Sharma is
also someone to watch out for, although this season she's got
scores and she looks bloody good.
Like made through technique or her intent or anything.
But if you'll see, ultimately what's happened is she's still
taken time. So she's played some really
amazing books, but you end up seeing her get run a ball
innings or stuff like that. So maybe things like that could
have been where, although it looks good to the eyes, it's
maybe not work for them. But there's promising signs for
the seasons to come. Also, because Anushka Sharma's
game itself will expand. And I think this is a really
good side. Beth Mooney is going to be on
top and essentially you would want her to play the entire
innings going to be kind of player, which is something they
also got. And so till full Mali was
getting those knocks towards the end of the innings when she was
scoring 36 of 19 or knocks like that, it was working really
well. So the moment those pieces went
out is when they were possibly facing issues.
So it's a lot of tweaking that they'll have to do, but
tactically I think they are a stronger side.
No, just another point of Anushka.
Sharma that has nothing to do with the cricket.
She's a looks like a probably cool player, like in the field
with her curly hair and the glasses.
This is an ironic comparison, but it's kind of Virat Kohli
esque of just I'm in there, I'm talking some shit.
I'm the young person, but I'd look great and you all are
idiots and let's just keep going and I'm angry and great and
let's go. And it's she looks probably
cool, especially in those dirty orange jerseys.
She makes her look good. And I'm like, all right, I can.
That's a player I can, like, compare to a lot of slightly
boring players that happen to be around the league.
Yeah, there's just some energy. About her and she's also
brilliant in the field. I think sadly, it cost her her
injury, her hand for a couple of games.
But yeah, like definitely someone.
I'd be surprised if she doesn't play India in the next couple of
years if she's consistent. Like it just seems like she's
made the big stage. Any any interesting stats about?
GG Like perhaps the power play, how they boss the power play.
Do you have anything? Yeah, I think they were by far
the best. Power play batters, right?
Not a bit close. They were like 10-15 runs better
than everyone else on average. And they're the only WPL team
that likes batting first, right? That alone is this.
That's true that they really enjoy batting first.
They tend to put up scores that are about 10 to 20 runs higher
when they're batting first, which is rare for the WPL.
And I think that's a bit where you could slightly see the
Aussiness, Nash Gardner coming up when she chose to bat 1st and
was happy when other people, they went to bat first.
They were like, yeah, we'll just do it and you guys have to catch
up and it's not my problem in the second innings anymore.
So I think that was a very interesting part about them,
Chan. Do you want to come in about
Gigi? Yeah, I think, you know I
didn't. Particularly rate them that
highly coming into the season, when I looked at their team and
everything, I was like, OK, I, I, what I really felt was they
were like in one another middle order batter in their team.
I know there was like, obviously people were talking about
Anushka Sharma even before the tournament that, you know, she's
this player who's done really well at the domestic level and
she is likely to start. Everybody had them.
Everybody had her in their expected line of cricinfo and
all. So I think we were expecting to
see her. But what I was thinking is key,
You know, Ash Gardner is in at #4, Georgia Wareham is in at #5.
You probably want them a little later on.
So that one more batter in the middle and you have a very
strong batting lineup then with full Millie also coming towards
the end and Kashmir Gautam also can, you know, hit a few and
score some runs as a #8 sort of a batter.
So I feel like that one thing, one piece I felt was missing.
And obviously Sophie Devine, I think she's over performed in a
sense where she's also done so well with the ball.
And obviously she's had a terrific season with the back
two deserving player of the tournament for sure.
Won them two games, bowling the last over, but against the Daily
Capitals once again. So that element was there, but I
don't know for, for some reason, even I find it a bit hard to
follow Gujarat Giants compared to the other teams because as
you guys said, right, they have the other teams, the three teams
that already have a men's team, This thing, right, you naturally
get a bit more attracted towards them and you want to see those
teams more. I don't know, maybe it's just
some sort of a subconscious bias that I have or most of us have
maybe. But yeah, I with Gigi, I think
they also it's the orange jerseys.
And the jerseys, of course. No doubts about that.
They they also got Renuka right. And with Renuka Taruta and I
have been having a discussion for like a year or something.
She is the best bowler in the world when she's on it, right?
But she is so, so inconsistent. She's so high variance there.
She can go for 20 wins and one over or she can take like 2-3
wickets. So it's just incredible that and
it's just that RCB game, which you guys remember right, the
first ever went for what, 20 runs and then RCB somehow
managed to be 40 or for four. It was just a hilarious game to
watch and even the final the eliminator that they ended up
losing right Ash gardeners captaincy.
You know, maybe in the sense of you know, the fact that they
were able to come back in in the season and they finished third
quite comfortably right. I think we have to give a credit
for that, but at times I felt like she was going too much into
the matchups, which to be fair, I think I am a fan of matchups
right. We need matchups in cricket.
We need informed decision making based on data and you know it
has to be a bit more granular than just the.
You can't go to the right hand there with spinners who might be
worse than that of spinner at a given point.
Right When we were talking about Herman Freeze and how openly she
said that. Herman has had the edge over me
in international cricket as well as in the WPL, which she was
right about. But then the other left hand
finger spinners that she was talking about, Harman had
dominated them even more. So would you not just trust the
more high quality international world?
That was something which was a bit, you know, off putting
through the season, especially in that RCB game, sorry, in that
Mumbai game and then in the Eliminator as well.
So I feel like that's something which I will not be able to
forget that easily. And you know, lots of people
were saying that Ash Gardner is likely to be the next captain
now for the Australian team, right?
But now they didn't give her the captaincy.
Maybe, you know, this sort of season, I don't know how much of
A part that played in that, but yeah, I feel like that is
something she could take a bit more charge for the quality of
layer that she absolutely is, both with that and all.
Yeah, that's right, I think. Ash Gardner had an interesting
season, so I'm going to open this up now.
I will ask Neha actually and then the others, who do you
think was the Falguni Pathak of Gujarat Giants, which is the
absolute good? I think no doubt here my answer
is going to. Be very obvious.
It has to be Sophie Devine, right?
I think time and again she just proves her metal and this season
was no different. Again, adjectives will fall
short, you know, sort of describe her impact itself.
The fact that she's able to churn out performances like this
consistently is something that I think will augur well, right,
considering they've invested in her probably for like a
three-year cycle itself, right, the mega auctions itself and a
little bit like you feel you was a far former RCV player, you
know, doing well for another franchise.
It always, you know, feel nice when you see some of your old
players do well in that regard. And yeah, the fact that, you
know, she doesn't play international cricket anymore,
it's feed up her calendar so much more and just handling all
of her energy to franchise cricket.
I think it will just be really good for Gigi itself.
I think in her the speeches, right, she did after winning the
purple cap and that MVP 2, she did dimension of the team
environment being such and the kind of camera she's developed
with each of the players too, that sort of helped her come up
with performances like that's just hoping that we get to see a
lot more of that. So for me, she definitely has to
be the very obvious thing for this award.
Is there agreement? From everybody else, yeah, I
think it sounds about right. My only grouse is.
That. My only grouse is that Sophie
Devine is great all year round and Falguni is only required
during Navratri. So just that see this is.
This is very typical MV. So, OK, since since you've come
in about this, I will ask you what do you think is what do you
think is Gigi's rating of out of 10 last over finishes by Devine
6 1/2? That's that's kind of low.
Interesting. I actually have a higher.
Than DC, I think just because coming into the season, DC had
higher expectations and Gigi, I mean, you could hear them after
they got eliminated. It was a positive elimination.
But yeah, all right, that happens.
We'll come back better next year.
We know each other. We know the team.
And a little point I want to add to like, Shine brought up as
well, right? The top three teams already have
their followings and they're just migrating over.
I was talking to one of my subscribers today morning who
was at the game yesterday and has gone for a couple of the
games in Vadodara and she's not from Gujarat.
She's flown down there to check it out.
And she was telling me that it is.
The games are pretty packed. The stands have got, they've got
RCB fans and DC fans, but there's a lot of Gujarat fans.
There's a lot of local families and local women coming in, kids.
And even she was saying she saw a lot of grandmoms coming in
like Gujarat giant shirts. So it's it is a little unfair to
judge them this early on. I think give them 10 years, see
where they're at in 20-30. Do they end up being ironically
the DC of the IPL or do they end up being the RCV, right.
Are they the guys who know how to market themselves?
Do they not? But yeah, I think this extended
run where you say, oh, you're to play 10 matches and all five
teams are going to come and all the big players are going to
come. It has an impact.
People want to show up because you go.
I went for this thing, my friend went for it.
She said it was great. So I'm going to go tomorrow and
tickets are cheap and it's not easy.
The stadium is an hour away from the city because everything in
India has to be inconvenient. But it is.
That's how you build audiences. So as much as I hate the fact
that Bangalore hasn't had a match because RCB decided to
kill some people, it's good that other stadiums get a chance
right? It's good that Vadodara gets a
chance to see cricket and top class top class cricket.
Especially if you have a team that's from the city.
Wow, I can't believe I have to sidestep.
That comment and go ahead. We we had you on.
I remember about the the stadium debacle.
But yeah, in in the interest of time, I'm going to move on to
MI. So folks, how did MI just reach
second last at the table? Like we had pretty high hopes
from this team. They were largely unchanged.
They still kept all of their top all around talent.
Like what? What for them?
See, I think from Mumbai it. Has to start from the top.
Right. Their power play, batting, I
feel like that was the thing that held them back the entire
season in some ways. And the most interesting thing
was that they kept changing around it.
It's not that they let it go and they were not like, you know,
let's back whoever is there and hopefully it comes off.
I it felt like they played some 5-6 different opening bandwidth.
Correct me if I'm wrong. It definitely felt like that.
I have to go back and look at the numbers.
But yeah, whatever they tried in early on, it just didn't seem to
work. Even if you remember the NSB 100
game, right, they didn't really have a particularly blazing
start in the power play, right? What they managed to do was
Haley Matthews didn't get out. So that then, you know, really
impacted things and then she was able to build that partnership
with that silver Brunt and so on.
But I feel like apart from that, Silver Brunt and Herman, Preet
Kaur with the bat and Sadhana Sidhi and I think she had a
couple of innings once at the start.
And then there was also that one partnership between Amelia Kerr
and Aman Jodhkar. I think in the game where
against UP where they were playing pretty well, I think
they were still a bit behind the game, but they didn't put up a
bad effort at all. They're batting, I feel like
they didn't have a lot of options.
Do you know fall back on it just kept it just felt like again and
again it was the same old players and that one game right
against the Gujarat Giants were Herman Pritt again as usual.
She always like she's almost like Bradman against Gujarat
Giants, right. She obviously she will always
make runs and she'll make high impact runs and nobody could
support her this one time they finally lost to them right.
So I think it just shows the over reliance on those two
players who are absolutely class players.
But I don't know, like Mumbai, they were the title winners last
year, then they didn't change their team.
So I was rating them very highly coming in.
I'm also very confused what really went wrong.
Yeah, I'm probably just doing a dissection.
Of Mumbai itself so far, when you look at the past three
seasons, you've had like a certain set of core players, you
know, who have ensured that they've won.
I feel like Stratsu just found out, right?
Because the rest of the players in that playing 11 just go
underutilized because it's just like the Aussies players, plus
Harun Preet Kaur, who, you know, do the job for them.
And yeah, Mumbai is happy they've won two titles and all
of that. But this season, I think because
of those players, you know, not really stepping up as much as
they did in the past seasons, it really came to the fore, right?
And the fact that they lost to UP Warriors twice in a row, I
think that was like the final nail in the coffin.
Said this is like not being disrespectful to UP Warriors.
But then I think Mumbai really, really lost the plot there
because those two losses against UP Warriors coming back-to-back
in the span of like 2 days and then losing to Delhi as well, it
really meant things were, you know, sort of going out of
control. 1 positive definitely has to be.
I mean, Harmanpreet Kaur, the fact that she was in the
reckoning for the Orange cap for like a great chunk of the season
was scoring runs at will, you know, in spite of all the
musical chairs experimentation that was happening with that,
you know, opening door itself, like she really emerged as a
positive. But after a point, it just felt
like, you know, things were out of Mumbai's control and it
looked like a very deflated unit.
Herman too, right? Usually see her very aggressive
in this and that. But I think after the World Cup,
when she's like kind of tempered down a little bit, you see a
very different version of her. It's like, you know, there's
this whole weight of the world. It's off her shoulders.
Again, not sure how the players inside the setup are reacting to
Barry was seeing such a calm Herman the one time I did see
her really angry boss, probably at a in that RCB game itself or
like I'm sure I or was it another game?
Not sure. But All in all, just something
really didn't work out well for MI.
And the fact that, you know, like a lot of their frailties
did come to the foot. I think just meant, you know,
the season was always going to be difficult and things were
going to be out of their hand. We like.
It's also a problem of plenty. Right.
Because you spoke about the core and how the core is essentially
all rounder. So every player who has who has
been a core for them, Amanjot Kaur and as we Haley Matthews,
they've all been bowlers and batters.
And because of the fact that Haley Matthews was injured to
begin with, it sort of send them in a frenzy because it was not
their set template that they usually start off the season
with or have throughout the season anyways.
Interestingly, they anyways found Nicola Carey who's going
to be someone who they're going to keep for a while.
But it's essentially that now because of how much a certain
players are being utilized or under utilized, it dies back in
with Nehant Arotha's points as well.
So yeah, it's it's really tricky.
And because of this, your players, if you think about it
from a psychological standpoint, a lot of these players might
lose confidence or might not feel confident in their
abilities because obviously you're not going to be as good
starting out, especially uncapped Indian players as
compared to some of these great all rounders.
So at what point do you get that opportunity?
So even someone like a Kamalini, she started off the first game
was good, she got a decent start, and then she kind of
faulted off for a couple of games.
But if you're picking someone who's that young and if you've
given her that kind of responsibility, at least, I
think even as a management or as a captain, it sort of becomes
your duty to at least give them one leg so that you can fully
either rule them out or just give them the entire season.
Be like, OK, we understand you're just 17 years of age.
You're going to take your time and you're going to develop.
So because what happens now is they've dropped coming in mid
season, they've possibly faked an injury as well.
We don't know what the situation with that is.
And so coming even into the next season, she's she's probably
going to question her spot, even if she has a couple of good
innings. Is that good enough for her?
So it's a lot of this like I think it comes down to how they
manage their players and it will also be interesting because
their all rounders are also becoming are coming closer to
the ends of their careers. So because of the fact that
they're investing in newer players, Aminder Kaur is an all
rounder and all of these. So how do you ensure that you're
transitioning properly? So that's also another thing.
Why do they want the same? Player to play in both the
innings. Like I understand, like all
rounders, there's a there's a huge space for all rounders and
they have some of the best all rounders.
But it just seems like if you lose an all rounder, like you
said, it's very difficult to fill those shoes, right.
It's very difficult to build your squad around it.
So Hayley Matthews, they really missed her.
It upset the balance of the team when they didn't have her.
You know, a word on their all rounders.
Anyone else wants to come in? I mean, it's like you.
Said right, the women's game is still at the point where 100 and
8200 is considered a good score. So all rounders are a useful
thing to have where you don't even have complete specialists.
And it doesn't help that they're all rounders are also
specialists. Like NSB is top 10 batters, top
five batters in the world. Amila Kurt is the best spinner
in the world in my opinion. At least top three.
I don't think anyone disagree with that.
Hailey Matthews, same thing up there, Top five all rounders in
the world for sure, but top five batters also, I would argue top
five bowlers from an all rounder perspective.
So it's not like they're taking bits and pieces places and
saying, oh, you've got to do everything on both ends of the
ball. They're taking the best all
rounders and shoving them in. And as Pratham said, they had
the problem of too many all rounders, right?
It's not like they could play all five of their overseas
players. They would have, I had a lot of
different problems, right? I think Neha wrote a piece for
us in the season about how they kept persisting with Sajna at
the top, which was just made no sense.
So she's not an opener, she's a finisher.
You can't ask her to open. She also made a point earlier in
this podcast about how the other teams, the good teams use their
local players. Am I just didn't?
And I think that's a shift that we've not talked about on the
spot in this season, whatever of how the tactic of using your
local players has become far more important versus Mumbai had
largely won and even RCB in 20241 off the back of their
foreign players and one or two Indian players.
So that tactically shifted. But all that being said, I think
the simplest answer for why Mia lost is that you don't drop
Ismail. The moment they dropped Ismail,
it throws off your entire team. You cannot drop the best bowler
in the WPL. It just it's not close.
Like it's not. I would compare it to RCB
dropping Bell but Ismail is better.
Like it's not. You just don't drop as well.
It's pure karma at that point. They also dropped Kerr once.
For a game in Vadodara, not less so.
My God, I couldn't believe it. So Dan, you wanna make a quick
note about MI and then we can go to the ratings.
Yeah, I think I feel like another.
Interesting thing for them was that Hayley Matthews was a very
impactful power play bowler for them.
If we go back and look at the last three seasons.
Right. So I just have the numbers in
front of me. She had taken 16 wickets in
what, 42 overs? No, not even 4232 overs.
Yeah, exactly. So in 32 overs in the power play
in the last three seasons she had taken 16 wickets and only in
the last season she went for a few runs, she went for ten runs
and over. But before that her economy was
6.44 and 5.7. Now this season she only bowls
in the power play in three innings and she goes for three
for 56 and five overs. So I feel like that is one place
where it is a bit of a difference because I think an
off spinner giving you some overs in the power play, that
was a pretty handy thing that they had and she could also hold
those random bounces out of nowhere, right?
So I feel like maybe her not performing to the level that she
was in the previous seasons played a bit of a role,
especially when we're talking about the all rounder.
Then another thing that we've mentioned before is that Amelia
Curse batting has regressed a bit, right?
And they decided to throw her and open throw her to open the
innings right. And that didn't seem to work at
all because she was she just kept dotting up.
She it was not really, I feel like her thing.
And we've seen her decline in even in the ODIs in women's
cricket, right. You can see that her strikers
are not really at the same level anymore.
She's not that same quality of a batter perhaps that she was
when, you know, I think when she made that double 100 when she
was like, what, 17 or 18 years old and everybody was, you know,
very excited that oh, she she's going to be an absolute
superstar, which should be fair. She is, she is one of the best
players in the world even now, especially with the ball.
Undoubtedly I agree with the rutor now you know, she's the
best spinner in the world, but her batting not holding up as
well. Perhaps it just what all this
did was it caused balance issues for them.
Like to the point that says they had to drop 7 in this smile,
which doesn't really make any sense.
And they essentially had five very good overseas options.
They just had to keep picking between those and I feel like
those run up for best of cricket.
He did a very good piece actually on their all rounders
and he was, you know, sort of computing their impact and
everything. I think if somebody wants to
read about the all rounders and their impact for maintenance,
that's a really good place to start.
I'm gonna bring you in, Pratik. What do you think was?
MI's rating out of 10 Amila Kurt leg bricks.
It was a bit of a googly. To be fair, probably give it 5-5
or six. I mean, with that squad, if
you're not winning the WPL, it is a bit of a shocker.
So yeah, five, yeah. Do you think?
The game is just progressed beyond MI's current, you know,
strategy in terms of how they build their team.
If you look at. Friends and how women's
treatment is have progressed. You can definitely start to see
that scores are getting bigger and if anything, all rounders
make a lot more sense now. So I won't say it's probably
just a template thing and a confusion thing because every
team would love to have the luxury of the kind of all
rounders that home Indians has. Another thing is also maybe
they're not the most explosive set of all rounders.
Like, would you rather trade one of the all rounders with someone
who can really dunk the ball because there is no designated
finisher? Like everyone can come in and
possibly do a job, but do you have someone like Richard Bush?
That's just something that I can think of at the moment.
Of course, you have natural Brand who can really go for it.
You have Hailey Matthews who can.
So yeah, it's a tricky one, but still all rounder supreme for
me. I think it's AI think it's a
valid. Point but you shouldn't
discount. Am I just randomly getting the
best all rounder in an auction with nobody else bidding for
them? Like it'll just suddenly happen?
I had a question about who is the.
Neeta Bhabhi. Sorry, the Wall Street bet of
the team? I think so.
What's who's the greatest Wall Street bet in this in this team?
I'm going to say Kamalini. Purely for the fact that they're
gonna stick with her for the long run.
You're talking about whose stock is low right now that we.
Think is gonna go up someone whose stock is low?
Yeah. We can interpret it this way.
I'll probably take this one and go with.
Vaishnavi Sharma, right, coming in as a replacement late in the
season. I know we didn't see a lot of
exploits with the ball for her, but I think she's definitely one
for the future, right? A very interesting signing there
that didn't happen mid season. And the fact that she's been
doing well, right, right through age group cricket, you know, in
domestic cricket as well as an under 19 champion too.
I think like in the Mumbai stable, she will like grow and
develop a lot, will pay for India also for a lot of yours,
right? So I think she's one investment.
You know, that the season probably we didn't see a lot,
but going ahead has a lot of potential.
Yeah, that's right. OK, let's go to the the team
that's at the bottom of the table for the second collective
here. They're yes, bad shit, crazy.
I don't know what else to talk about this team, the UP Warriors
guys, what what are they doing? What's what's going on here?
And they accidentally built. A slightly average ODIDI don't
really know what this foster construction is if none of it
makes. Sense like to.
You know Indian marquee players at the old and Deepti who are
good players, but they are ODI players.
And there are some people who tell you the old is not even an
ODI player. Some people on this podcast who
have fought with a lot and I don't.
Yeah, I think that's the basic thing.
I don't know what this team is. 01 point that we should make
that really stands out is Eccleston has been terrible.
Like, for someone who was widely credited as the best bowler,
forget spinner, the best bowler in the world, truly terrible.
And if you look at the stats year on year, first year was
incredible, right? It was the Eccleston we all
expect. It's been declining quite
rapidly, both her wicket taking and her economy and I think she
covered it up a little bit last year with some batting
performances down the order. But the bowling has become not
just average, come below average, but you can't bowl or 4
overs a game. So I think that's a big one that
they've missed on or she's missed on.
I don't know what's happening then.
Maybe it's just a bad year, but the rest of the team doesn't
make sense. I don't.
It feels like they're short on everything.
I don't know how you manage that.
Shikha Pandey. What?
2.4 crores for Shikha Pandey. What was the point of that?
Like you can. It's just yeah, I don't
understand this team at all. And I think when you look at UV
Warriors. Itself a.
Lot can also be attributed to their auction strategy itself,
right you're trying to build an entire squad around Shweta
Sherawat. Now, again, you're taking a punt
on a massive player. Like, honestly, it didn't make
that much sense. Like, obviously Shweta Sherawat
does have potential, but trying to build a squad around her,
it's not actually that marquee or, you know, some player that,
you know, team, the senior team hasn't taken into account.
And even with Abhishek Nayar, right, I felt like most of the
time when he's addressing, you know, the journals in press
conferences, he just seem like clueless, right?
He's like, I'm not able to pinpoint like, what went wrong
for UP Warriors. We as armchair critics are able
to do that, but you as a coach are not.
I don't know. I just found it extremely
baffling. And you're not taking
accountability for that. Probably the highest for UP
Warriors this season was the fact that they were able to get
those wins against, you know, already struggling Mumbai
Indians unit. And I think the other thing that
UP Warriors thought was the moment you have someone like a
Meg Lanning, you're going to start winning.
But again, what are the rest of the other ten players going to
do, right? Meg Lanning alone cannot win new
games. Abhishek Nair also brought in
this point of he felt that the campaign went like a little all
over the place after they lost a Phoebe Litchfield itself.
Like, again, how could you just take one player and be like how
the moment she, you know, was injured, our campaign just went
into jeopardy. I'm not sure how these are like
logical reasons in that sense. I felt like the score
construction was still better than their previous season.
They had like, you know, a sense of like bowling.
There was there was some bowlers that he would actually look at
and be like, oh, this is what constitutes their bowling.
But All in all, it just I don't know, like the some of all parts
just didn't add up for them and a very, very forgettable season
wouldn't spoon holders yet again, the kind of initiatives
that up Boris does off the field, you know, sometimes
really captures my attention more more than their on field
exploits. Again, not to be disrespectful
but I hope they take a lot of learnings from the season and
Abhishek Nair as the coach who himself admitted that he hasn't
worked with women's teams in the past and has no idea, can get
some insight from the season first hand itself.
Kratik, do you wanna come in? Who?
The UP worries. Has been an interesting season,
I think up top with Kiran Navgiri just not firing in any
game at all. That's pretty sad.
And and she's she's someone who's had the reputation of
being such an explosive player in the domestic circuit.
She's broken records of all types.
So right from the top, that's something that didn't work.
And you're losing Litchfield halfway through the tournament
is also something to think about.
But even more interestingly, when their opening combination
with Navgiri at least was not working and they tried the over,
they tried DP Sharma. Why not just have Lichfield open
the batting? It's it's something she's done
in the ODI World Cup. She has a fellow Australian on
the other side. It would have complemented
Lanning style of play, where Lanning likes to take a little
bit of time and bat through again the entire innings, be an
anchor. And Lichfield, you know, is
going to explode anyway. So I feel like those are some
really basic things that they could have done so much better.
Push Navgiri down to where she was a lot more comfortable,
possibly have her come in as a finisher even.
So the biggest disappointment is that because if you look at the
power players, they've somehow managed to be the team that has
lost the least wickets in the power play period.
But it doesn't help because they barely strike at anything.
So right from the start, if you're not setting the tone
well, and even Shikha Pandey with the ball, for example,
you've spent so many of your team's resources on getting this
one player. And when she doesn't fire, it
suddenly becomes a huge issue. So it's some of these things.
Yeah. See Shan with the UP.
Warriors. I feel like it's a bit
interesting. Because coming into the season,
I, I was somehow rating them very highly because I thought
they had lots of players in different roles and specifically
their spin bowling, I thought that it is possibly going to be
a game changer. But right now, if we just look
at the numbers, their spinners average 37.5, which is the worst
in the league. And they had an economy of 8.7,
which is sort of middle of the table.
But you know, their spinners are just not taking any wickets.
And it's not like they were stopping the runs or, you know,
having an impact in terms of being more conservative with the
ball. That did not happen.
So one thing was that spinners completely fell apart.
They had a Christian, they had Chloe Tran, they had Deepti
Sharma, I mean they had Pasha Subhan.
I thought they had so many options would why are they going
to be a they have, they have, you know, spin bowling choices
with them. And then when we talk about the
batting, I felt that, you know, if Navgiri can give those high,
high intensity quick starts that we know that she has the
capability to do right, a bit like Shefali perhaps.
So I was thinking that could, you know, work really well for
them at the start with Lichfield coming in at #3 or even #4.
So I think Navgiri completely not performing, I think has, you
know, played a big role in this and their spinners
underperforming because I don't, I think completely agree with
the other panel members here who completely didn't seem to rate
UP all that much. I I just felt that OK, they have
lots of different players in various roles who, you know, can
do a good job. And Litchfield, we know, is a
very, you know, the sort of player who can be really
impactful in the power play, but also because of the variety of
shots that she has, she's also really impactful through the
middle overs. I thought that even if, you
know, she could take up a #4 role that could have, you know,
played a bit of a part in, you know, stabilizing their middle
order a bit with Nogarian lining doing well in the Parkway.
But that clearly did not happen. Of course, that hardly in the
old slash Pradika Raval role Pradika, of course, in play a
part in the tournament at all, But that was one number three.
I was also a bit, you know, shaky about OK, that's a bit too
slow for T 20s, you know, but and hardly still, you know, I've
managed to win them a game to be fair to her, but I I don't know,
dude, I honestly can't understand.
Even Shikha Pandey. If you look at her season, some
of her spells were really good, but then the other spells she
went for a lot of friends. It was very, very high variance
from her, which is usually not what you would associate from
her. I guess you probably think she's
going to be a more reliable and more consistent bowler, at least
from what we've seen with the daily capitals.
Her partnership with Marizan cap up top that again, none of that
just nothing seemed to work for you.
The only thing that I should do was defeat Mumbai.
I guess they defeated Mumbai both times.
That's true. Another thing, Shane, I mean,
this is maybe digressing a little bit, but with UP Warriors
and just rating them even at the start of the season, if you look
at all of the other franchise teams, I would say they have
Indian players who are already with some kind of reputation in
the T20 format. Whereas if you look at the UP
Warriors, even that's a beautiful miss, right?
Because Shika Pandey, all right, she's the only one who you can
somewhat say because of the tracker code that she's had that
she's also can be a good T20 bowler.
Whereas if you look at the rest of the lineup, no one really
like hardly they will get an upgrade you can say to a degree,
but they don't really have that stand out Indian player.
Also, I think even can be if we talk about their overseas
players for that matter, Deandra.
Dot and I don't think she had that level of impact, so they
eventually ended up dropping her.
They tried Chloe try and I think that didn't really work for them
either. So I don't know.
I thought they had the tools to be at least, I don't know, maybe
when I was comparing them face by face, maybe I overrated them
for some reason. But I, I very clearly remember
talking to Deepak, we had like 2 big podcasts and we were like
very bullish on up that no, they're looking like a serious
team this time. They're going to do something
and Lanning is there. And maybe with Abhishek Nair it
will work out. But now Abhishek Nair himself
admits that, you know, women's wicket is a completely different
ball game for him as well. And he, I'm sure he would have
learned a lot during the course of this season.
But yeah, I think they have been the perennial wooden spoon team
of the IPL, of the WPL in some ways, isn't it?
Is it not? Also, yeah, I think.
Go ahead there. I was just going to say there
has. To be something wrong in the
water here because you can't have leg landing as your
captain, who is very, I think unequivocally a good captain,
There's not really a way to debate that.
And everyone is worse, right? There were two great South
African finishers from the World Cup.
Raymond Clerk has carried a form on Claire.
Chloe Ryan has been completely invisible.
The, the, the old had one game basically, which was telling
Abhishek Naya to go find himself.
But there's, there's not, there's no inspiration in this
team. Everyone just seems to be going.
So we have one month to get over it and move on, right?
And you can talk about analytics and you can talk about how do
you buy a team and how do you spend it?
How do you choose A-Team and all that stuff.
But beyond landing in Litchfield, no one really seemed
to show off this season, right? It's maybe they just all, I
don't know what it is because we've are covering a sport that
doesn't, like tell its fans anything about itself.
So we don't know what's going on in the locker room.
But it doesn't, it feels broken. It feels like when your body
tells you that he's got this great job at a startup, but then
they make you work 25 hours a day.
So he's broken his spirit. Like, it just feels broken.
It's a very Bangalore reference. You know what, I kind of agree
with Cheyenne. Like we also rated them highly.
I thought they were very exciting upfront because that
spin line up along with, you know, Kiran Navgiri's domestic
form, I thought, you know, we'll see some fireworks up, but that
just did not manifest itself. And their wicket keeper like
what what was what is going on with their wicket keeping?
What the hell is that? Then they didn't play who I
thought who would be the most exciting player this season,
which was Gunghari Trisha. Like I really wanted them to
play her, at least try her out if you know, if they got rid of
Kiran Navkira at some point, I don't know.
So let's talk about UP in terms of who was the best player for
UP, who is the UP cheeseburger of the team?
And if you don't understand that reference, you have to listen to
our WPL preview UP. Cheeseburger is a choice.
Lanning has to be Lanning, right?
She's the only one who showed up.
I mean, Litchfield, too, but Lanning was there the entire
season, so I think she gets a nod.
Yeah, I think for me it has to be.
Phoebe Litchfield, I mean, the fact that, you know, she missed
out the rest of the season but still finds herself in the top
run getters list at that number 11 position.
I think she just played such an exciting brand of T20 cricket,
such a refreshing sign and definitely a future like
superstar for Australia if she already isn't one that I hope
they continue to retain her, give her that backing here at UV
Warriors and she can, you know, eventually turn their fortunes
around. But for me, I think she has to
be a player to watch out for and a big, big positive.
Yeah, I get it. What about the rating?
So out of 10 Meg lining starts what is the What is UP Warriors
rating -32. 13 is 30. I.
Don't know anything about this team and this for three years.
That's true, I think. I'm specifically disappointed in
that Abhishek Nayar thought that he could just waltz into like a
women's team and just do what it does for men's teams.
And I'm like, what? It's it's a completely different
sport at this point of time. But yeah, I think that the team
chemistry just wasn't there for some reason.
Like it that the thing that holds the team together, it was
missing. And yeah, I think that's all you
can say about up Warrior season and forced to retire out.
Also, just strange, some strange tactics.
All right, so just overall WPL impressions.
Who is the most improved player from last year's WPL?
Probably has to be Litchfield, right?
Because. For some weird reason, she was
not really dominating the WPL, but now this season she had an
average of 14. The striker of more than 150
played just six innings. But like, absolute blockbuster
stuff from her. I mean, I think she is perhaps
the most exciting player to watch in the women's game right
now. If you have to tell a casualty,
just get into the sport. She is the player you want to
watch because she can access the whole ground.
And she's also a very sensible player, but also a very exciting
player at the same time. And she clearly thinks about a
game. You can tell that, you know, she
has those cricketing smarts with her as well.
It's not because sometimes you see when these players who are
very talented, they can tend to lose their way a bit.
Maybe they're not sometimes very smart about their decision
making. But I think she's bang on with
when it comes to that and improvement for sure.
I mean, since that World Cup, she's just been like a next
level player too, for sure, right?
And so who? Is the total of the WPL which
means who carries their team on their back?
I think it has to be Nats of a brunt, right?
For Mumbai Indians, the fact that she continues to do it like
season after season, deservingly so, right was the 1st century of
the WPN, at least for me. She's like right up there.
I'm not sure how we didn't, you know, speak about her and how
single handedly, you know, she's been chipping in with the bat
and the ball, albeit a little expensive with the ball, but at
least with the bat, right? I think she's had that sort of a
season. And I think for me, literally
carrying the team on her back itself.
Can you say she carried them when they?
Didn't really. Go anywhere.
Good one there. I think she's got almost as many
runs this year that she has in the first three years.
So yeah, finally living up to it.
Nice. Who who is the knight in shining
armor of the WPL as and who saved their team from certain
defeat the most? Nadine Leclerc, I guess.
She kept doing it over and over again.
That Zulu esque we were talking about a World Cup, right Last
year. She kept South Africa would keep
using her at like #8 #9 for some weird reason very reminiscent of
Z1999 again for RCVI think both with bat and ball.
She just had such a massive impact that she was possibly the
biggest game changer in some ways.
You could argue Sophie Devine as well, but I think we might have
to give him the team declared some points because, you know, I
see we actually ended up winning it, which is not a fairway to
look at it, but who cares? So that's fair.
OK, And this one is for you Pratib, who left this WPL as a
bigger name than they entered Anushka Sharma 100%.
I feel like if you Google searcher now, you won't have
Virat Kohli's wife showing up. You'll also have some search
results for Anushka Sharma, the Gujar Jans player.
So Lauren Bell the ratra says that in the chat, not Lauren
Bell. The thing with Lauren Bell is
even through the World Cup, you've seen like, this whole
package of her of commentators talking about her technical
change and how she's tweaked her game a lot.
But Anushka Sharma, for so many people coming in, you've just
heard of this name. You possibly have an idea that,
OK, she's done well in the domestics.
But to replicate that to some extent and with the kind of
style and this, how she carries herself, is definitely one name
to watch out for the future. Yeah, that's fair.
I'm not sure that if you Google Anushka Sharma, you will not
find the actors, but everything else I think I agree with.
All right. Any final notes on the WPL
before we wrap up? Like what did you think of the
tournament overall compared to previous tournaments and
internal? I really think like the season.
Was a. Well contested one, right?
The quality of cricket was right up there.
The fact that we were still, you know, thinking of who could
potentially qualify for that eliminator itself till the very
last match. I think just, you know, went on
to show that each of the teams were going, you know, at it.
And I just felt like it was a much better season in comparison
to the others. And also, we didn't have like,
the usual suspects, you know, qualifying for like the
playoffs. Again, taking back to the point
that I wish we had like, more matches, more teams.
The scheduling could have been better.
And probably, you know, like, they could have probably kept
the first leg in Vadodara and then the next set of matches in
Navi Mumbai, you know, sort of capitalize on that.
A lot of things that could have, you know, sort of gone better.
But in spite of that, the league continues to Denver and throw up
so many starts, right? So, yeah, I think a lot of
positives in that regard. But I hope like there's some
again, you know, foresight into the planning and the scheduling
side side of things. And it's not so, you know,
centered on, oh, men's cricket is playing like you have India
and New Zealand and all of that and then in a sort of schedule,
the WPL as an afterthought. So I hope that mindset also, you
know, sort of goes on to see and better venues too, right?
Navi Mumbai is definitely one of your picks.
But could other venues have been explored as something I probably
leave the room to think about? I mean Devjit Saikia.
Says that women games don't get crowds.
So I mean, should I believe you? And I'm chair, critic or the
secretary of the BCCI? Yeah, Devjit.
Singh is. An interesting man doing very
stupidness. I don't know how he's become so
important to global politics all of a sudden.
Don't worry, I think he's on his way out.
And Rak Thakur has just been cleared, right?
To come back to the BCCI. Are we doing the draft?
Yeah, dude, do you? Want to do the draft real quick?
Yeah, let's do it, Neha. OK.
Pratib, Cheyenne, Richa and MV. OK, that's the order.
No, it's 12, so it's 12, so. Two each.
OK, what are we doing? It's it's just a simple snake
style. Draft where we pick 12 players
to form the team of the WPL 2026 so may have your first.
Yeah, I really love that I'm. 1st I'm going.
To go with Smriti Madra, there at least the top order is sorted
and the captain of the team, rightfully so winning team, so
she Taratra is not unhappy with that sorted up.
Next is Taratra Daratra you her second pick.
Yeah, as a completely unbiased. Observer, I'm going to take
Lauren Belle because those two apparently can, would have
thought. Like if I just cut a reel of you
saying. Laurel and Belle, I think that'd
be more than one minute. Please don't do that.
No, we don't do anything on this.
Podcast Next up is Pratib. I'll go with.
Natsu Abrant. Another easy one.
We. Have sham.
Hey, I still feel like there's lots of options.
Available. I'm honestly getting a bit
confused. So how about Nadine de Clerk?
Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, Richard, Sophie Devine.
Sophie Devine, I think. Yeah, I, I.
Had expected her to be picked earlier.
I'm going to go Nandani Sharma and Harman Preet Kaur.
And back to you Richard. Wow.
Oh God. So Nadine, the clerk's already
done see who else? So I'll go, I'll go through the
name. Again, Neha went for There is my
OK, so I'll run the order again. Neha went for Smithy, Mandna
Tartra went for anybody's guesses, Lauren Bell Pratib went
for Nat Civil Brand. Shan went for Nadine the clerk,
which went for Sophie Devine. I picked Herman, Britt Kaur and
Anne Sharma and which has again picked Shabnam Ismail.
So back to you Shan. Can we pick more than 4
overseas? It doesn't really matter, man.
If that is not the rule, then I. Have no issues guys.
We probably need another opener still I would assume because we
do have a lot of batters, but we can go with an opener to no
compliments for the we don't even have a keeper here.
So, and we can, you know, sort out a keeper as well, I mean.
Lizelli seems like a good option if you want that keeper plus top
order back cover. So I think let's just go with
her. Yeah, Lizelli, fantastic.
Which brings us. Back to Pratib, so OK, so.
Probably should go for a spinner.
We don't have too many spinners. No spinners right now.
I think probably go with Ashley Gardner.
Is this the team that she gets to bowl?
Yeah, she has to bowl. In this team, she's also not the
captain, so yeah, makes sense. Next up is Dharutra.
So we've got an off spinner, right?
So it. Sounds like we need a leg
spinner. You guys tell me who you think
the best latest. Winner in the league is has to
be Premier Rawat. The Indian man.
Since we're not doing foreign. Players, I think we have to.
I mean, we're not doing an overseas limit.
You have to go for a lot of kick, right?
She's even gone to 50 in a World Cup.
To me all around this. Yeah.
It's not enough fun. Can't wait for Neha to.
End this with another surprise pick.
I was actually thinking very left field.
Here And I think you're Rajeshwari Gaikwad.
I think the way she's reinvented herself in this season, I think
she definitely makes a case for herself like, yeah, I don't
know, I just feel like we should go for her.
Bharatra has just fallen off his chair.
I. Was just looking at her numbers
right? This season, like, she's had
some really economical spells. Balls among us.
He's fallen off his chair again, like.
For the record, yeah, I mean. The.
Big question. Is.
Does this team beat RCB? I mean, if Smriti's playing
against. RCB, so and and Nadine, right,
we're resuming clones. I think going by the.
Team of the WPL. I think ChatGPT can decide it.
It's. So much shape from MV all
throughout. All right, So, you know, with
that, we wrap up our WPL coverage.
It was it was a lot of fun this year.
You know, RCB won it. Again, congratulations to their
team as a Delhi fan and sad. But, you know, what can we do?
Yeah. So I just want to thank you all
for having for coming on to this podcast, you know, Pratib,
Tarutra, Neha, Cheyenne, thank you all.
Hopefully we can invite you on for more coverage in the future.
We have a World Cup coming up later this year.
So all right. And that's a wrap.
That's four in a row. Various girls they're going to
blow next in the prodigal son turn.
Messiah gets a second hundred in successor in romantic style.
The whole of Bengals are on their feet.